October, IgII 
sembling fantastic caps. The flesh is pale and stringy, but 
not without a certain delicacy of flavor. Some of these 
squashes have a uniform yellow, green, or orange color, 
some are striped with white and green, and some are cream- 
colored and covered with elongated warts. All of these 
varieties are common in the fruit shops and restaurants of 
France. The skin of these squashes is very tender; hence 
they are packed carefully in baskets for transportation, as 
is shown in one of our illustrations. A yellow variety of 
elongated conical form is cultivated in the United States 
under the name of the pineapple squash. 
In Europe squashes and pumpkins are used almost ex- 
clusively in the fresh state, in making soups and for other 
purposes. The peasants of the south of France make 
excellent pies and jams of some varieties, and also stew 
them like potatoes. In ancient times, pumpkins were 
cleaned of their seeds, dried, and prepared in various ways 
in winter. They formed an important article in the food 
of Roman slaves, and this custom of drying pumpkins was 
continued to a late period in-the vicinity of Genoa, Italy. 
The market gardeners of Paris preserve the purity of 
race of their gourds by collecting the seeds themselves. In 
Anjou an oil which is edible, but quickly becomes rancid, is 
extracted from the seeds. 
The melons, however, are probably more widely culti- 
vated throughout the world than any other representatives 
of the Cucurbitaceae. Specialists divide the numerous types 
of this class, into the description of which we cannot here 
enter, into two great groups. The first group, that of the 
netted melons, comprises the pineapple melon of America, 
the green climbing melon, the sugar melon of Tours, the 
American muscadine melon, the Malta winter melon, the 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
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Several specimens of American squashes raised in French gardens 
common French melon, etc. The second group, that of 
the warty melons or cantaloupes, distinguished by character- 
istic excrescences, includes the Paris cantaloupe, the apple 
cantaloupe, the Prescott cantaloupe, etc. 
In general, melons do not grow well in the open air in 
France, except in the south. In colder districts, near Paris, 
for example, the seeds are sown in hotbeds in February. 
As soon as the two seed leaves have expanded, the seedlings 
are transplanted to other hotbeds. A mean temperature of 
The skin of these squashes is so very tender that they must be handled and packed carefully in baskets for transport to shops and restaurants of France 
